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RULING LIKELY PUSHES BACK KXL DECISION: The chances of the Keystone XL oil pipeline’s fate being decided before the midterm elections are slimmer than ever. Some on both sides of the issue say a delay until late this year or even 2015 is increasingly likely after this week’s Nebraska court ruling threw out a state law that had allowed the governor to approve the project’s route inside the state. The ruling doesn't address the bigger debate over whether the pipeline should be approved, but, if it stands, could force TransCanada to get permission from Nebraska regulators, adding to the process. Talia Buford and Andrew Restuccia have more: http://politico.pro/1h2s0eB

— White House spokesman Josh Earnest deflected questions about the ruling's impact, saying yesterday that the State Department "will be the officials to evaluate what impact ongoing litigation may have on their process."

Meanwhile — Former USGS chief backs pipeline: The former head of the U.S. Geological Survey said on Thursday it’s “time to move forward” with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, arguing the project is more environmentally sound than moving crude oil by rail and truck. Marcia McNutt, former head of USGS and now editor-in-chief of the journal Science, became the latest of the former Obama administration officials to back the pipeline. Darren Good has more: http://politico.pro/1cvvTrp

IS STEYER V. KOCH A MISMATCH? Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to compete with the Koch brothers. The former hedge fund executive may be pledging to spend $100 million or more to make climate change a prime election issue in 2014 and beyond, but he’s still a long way from matching the conservative empire of Charles and David Koch — a sprawling network of groups whose diverse causes range from attacking Obamacare to opposing incentives for rooftop solar panels. Andrew Restuccia and Byron Tau Have the story: http://politico.pro/1c5G7LM

INTERIOR NEEDS TO BETTER ADDRESS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PAY GAP — GAO: The Interior Department is facing major hurdles in hiring and retaining oil and gas oversight staff, like petroleum engineers and geologists, because of a slow hiring process and lower pay compared to the industry, the Government Accountability Office says. Interior is not doing everything it can to bridge the public-private salary gap, GAO says. "We recognize that the use of these incentives comes at a cost to other programmatic efforts," the report says. "However, in the event that Interior applies for special salary rates for key oil and gas positions in the future… demonstrating that it has fully utilized its existing authorities can help support its request for such salary rates." GAO recommends Interior “explore the bureaus' expanded use of recruitment, relocation, retention, and other incentives and systematically collect and analyze hiring data.” Report: http://1.usa.gov/1d6r1ps

But wait, there’s more: GAO scolded the National Nuclear Security Administration in a report yesterday on several points related to the cost overruns of its MOX program, which is designed to turn 34 metric tons of weapons plutonium into reactor fuel. Unlike Defense Department procedures, NNSA, an arm of DOE, wasn’t required to do — and still hasn’t done — a root cause analysis of why the project is expected to be $3 billion over budget. Not conducting such an analysis, GAO says, has kept the project on the watchdog’s list of programs at “high risk of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement." Report: http://1.usa.gov/1eZUhOn

EXXON CEO PARTY TO SUIT AGAINST WATER TOWER: A lawsuit against a water tower that will provide water for fracking is getting support from an unexpected source: ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson. The Wall Street Journal: “He and his neighbors had filed suit to block the tower, saying it is illegal and would create ‘a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,’ in part because it would provide water for use in hydraulic fracturing. … While the lawsuit Mr. Tillerson joined cites the side effects of fracking, a lawyer representing the Exxon CEO said he hadn't complained about such disturbances. … The dispute over the 160-foot water tower goes beyond possible nuisances related to fracking.” WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/Og5x4i

JUDGE VACATES BUSH-ERA COAL MINING RULE: A federal court has vacated the 2008 Interior Department stream buffer zone rule and remanded the issue back to the Office of Surface Mining — good news for the administration’s efforts to do a total re-write of the George W. Bush administration rule. Judge Barbara J. Rothstein of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia focused largely on the ESA claim that the Bush administration wrongly ruled that no consultation with other agencies was necessary. Coal mining would surely affect threatened or endangered species, she wrote, and therefore the decision skip the consultation "was not a rational conclusion,” Rothstein wrote. The ESA violation is serious enough that Rothstein vacated the rule, which has only been in effect on arid Indian lands with few streams and in a few states, only one of which produces a small amount of coal. The previous 1983 version will remain in effect until a new rule is finalized. Ruling: http://politico.pro/1h2kksO

Reactions: Deborah Murray, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center who represented the National Parks Conservation Association in the suit, called the ruling “a significant victory for efforts to protect Appalachian waterways, as it invalidates a Bush-era regulation that removed critical protections against mountaintop removal and other forms of surface coal mining.”

— "We are disappointed with the ruling and are in the process of reviewing the decision," said Nancy Gravatt, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, which intervened in the lawsuit to defend the rule.

NRC STAFF EXPLORE OPTIONS FOR AGING PLANTS: Even though the NRC is still sorting out its licensing process after a federal court judgment led the agency to stop issuing final decisions, regulators are already starting to think about how to deal with nuclear plants that reach senior citizen age. In a paper publicly released this week, NRC staff outlined four options for extending a nuclear reactor’s life beyond the current 60-year limit. The existing license renewal regulations were “sound,” agency staff told NRC leadership, but they requested approval to begin a rulemaking process and recommended several additions, including that the agency study so-called aging-management activities. Although no reactor will hit the 60 year mark for more than a decade, NRC staff say they expect the first application to exceed that age as early as 2017. The paper: http://1.usa.gov/1bPEaZe

**At Philips, our mission is to create a company that makes a difference to you. We believe the way to achieve this is through innovation — making cities safer and people healthier. Others may focus on what innovation does; we focus on what it does for you. http://philips.to/LQb6EV**

IN TODAY’S FEDERAL REGISTER — DRAFT SEIS OF FIRST PROPOSED NPR-A WELL: The Bureau of Land Management is kicking off a 60-day comment period on an environmental review for the first proposed production well in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. ConocoPhillips and Anadarko are looking to build a drill site, pipelines and other facilities on NPR-A lands near another production site on state lands. The project backers said last year that construction could begin by 2016 and production by 2017 if all goes to plan. FR notice: http://1.usa.gov/MFDb2l. Draft environmental assessment: http://on.doi.gov/1oXTgPx

APPEALS COURT SLAPS DOWN OFFSHORE FIRM’S SUIT FOR LOST PROFITS: An offshore development company does not qualify for lost profits from 1982 drilling leases effectively broken by the federal government in 1990, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled yesterday. Thirteen companies were awarded more than $1 billion in restitution back in 2002 after courts ruled that a congressional bill giving states more authority on drilling in nearby federal waters breached the lease contracts. One of those companies, Nycal Offshore Development Corp., declined the restitution and sought $72 million in lost profits. However, the appellate court upheld a lower court finding and rule that Nycal “failed to meet its burden of proving causation and thus has not established its right to a lost-profits award.” The ruling: http://1.usa.gov/1eYRS6v

AD WATCH: The progressive group Americans United for Change is paying for those who Google "EPA" this weekend to see ads for an Olympics-themed Tumblr declaring that changes to the RFS mean "Big Oil wins the gold." The site: http://bit.ly/1bQDmmZ

‘ELLO GUV’NAH: The National Governors Association's 2014 winter meeting kicks off tonight with a reception at the Brazilian ambassador's residence. And on Sunday afternoon, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel Esty participate in a panel on energy and economic growth. Agenda: http://bit.ly/1gRhVUP

**At Philips, our mission is to create a company that makes a difference to you. We believe the way to achieve this is through innovation — making cities safer and people healthier. Others may focus on what innovation does; we focus on what it does for you. http://philips.to/LQb6EV **